


It's a Bird

by Ray_Writes



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 02, Alternate Season/Series 05, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, Episode Fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 13:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18993160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ray_Writes/pseuds/Ray_Writes
Summary: In a universe where another Kryptonian pod doesn't crash land to Earth, Supergirl and her friends receive a different otherworldly visitor; on a different world, Team Arrow loses one of their own, but not in a way that they can initially understand.





	It's a Bird

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Since this is a holiday weekend for me, I thought I'd treat you all to a plot bunny I had. I'm calling it a plot bunny because to continue it, I would need an interested beta reader who has actually seen seasons two of Supergirl and five of Arrow, which I have not. So, if this idea intrigues you, let me know and maybe we can work something out. I have a vague idea of certain plot points I want to move forward.
> 
> The pairings as of now are listed as undecided because it could honestly go any direction at this point where I've left off in this first chapter. However, I will state that my interest in pairings that include characters I haven't actually watched anything of (i.e. Lena Luthor) would likely be small. Otherwise, feel free to weigh in.
> 
> At any rate, I hope you enjoy this idea, and we'll see if anything else comes of it down the road. Thanks for reading, and let me know your thoughts!

It didn’t get much better than a night like this. Family and friends, along with the possibility of a new relationship she’d been longing for for months. Kara was still beaming ear to ear thanks to that.

But Supergirl didn’t get nights off for long. As she sat amongst the others, a distant sound caught her ear, rising in prominence until she couldn’t ignore it.

Kara looked up.

“Kara? What’s wrong?”

Everyone else had stopped talking, but she hardly noticed. She’d placed the sound. It was a scream, and of terror.

“Be right back.” She left James’ side and hurried out the door. There wasn’t time to change, so Kara took off straight into the sky.

It took her several precious minutes to find her target — judging by the volume of the scream, she had thought it closer. But at last Kara spotted it; a figure in black, falling fast. She put on a burst of speed to intercept, getting her arms around the person and continuing her flight at a gradually decreasing pace to ease out of the momentum of the fall.

Kara looked down at the woman, for it was a woman with long, blonde hair and a mask laid over her eyes. Her clothing was mostly leather, and there was some sort of stick or baton sitting in a holster on her thigh.

Kara’s brow furrowed. “Where did you come from?”

There was no answer; the woman must have passed out shortly before she had caught her.

She didn’t look injured otherwise, and Kara wasn’t sure what a hospital might think of the whole mask situation. More than that, though, if she turned this woman over to the authorities now, she might not find out just why she’d been plummeting through the air with no visible starting point or any plan at a landing.

Nothing for it then. Kara turned back for home, taking care to tuck the woman’s body in closer as she cleared the window. The others all turned around at her entrance, taking the sight in with varying degrees of surprise.

“Uh, Kara?” Winn took a half step forward. “Who’s your hot friend?”

“I’m not sure yet. She was falling through the air, but by the time I reached her, she’d fallen unconscious. I need somewhere to let her rest until she wakes up, and then we can ask.”

She shooed Alex and J’onn off the couch to make room, and the two of them exchanged a look.

“Kara, she’s wearing a mask,” her sister said.

“And she’s armed,” J’onn pointed out.

“Well, it’s not with kryptonite, so we should be fine.”

“Do we know who she is?” James motioned around his eyes. “Under the mask, I mean.”

Kara shrugged, then leaned over to lift the mask off the stranger — who was still a stranger. “Nope. Guess we’ll just have to ask her.”

“Kara, honey,” Eliza reached to touch her shoulder. “Are you sure you want that happening in your apartment?”

“Oh.” She looked around, then down at the sleeping stranger. Kara switched to her X-Ray vision for a moment. There was something puzzling about her throat, but otherwise… “Her physiology suggests human.”

Alex stepped up next to her and felt at the woman’s wrist and forehead. “Heart rate and temperature are consistent with one.”

“So the D.E.O. isn’t the right place for her, and she isn’t injured, so a hospital won’t take her.” Kara shrugged. “I don’t know where else this can happen.”

“Maybe if I have a look at her recent memories, it might give us a better idea of what we’re dealing with,” J’onn suggested.

Kara and Alex both moved back as he stepped forward, eyes glowing red. His brow furrowed, and a frown grew on his face.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Alex asked.

“Her mind. It’s not strictly inaccessible, but it isn’t as open as a human’s should be. I’m only getting flashes of images that keep cutting out.”

“What, like the signal’s bad?” Winn asked.

“She was somewhere like a jail, I think. There were people in prison uniforms. And a man with white hair. Then there’s the falling. I can’t get much else.” J’onn blinked and shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, J’onn,” She assures him. “So to all appearances she’s human, but something is interfering with your telepathy.”

“I can probably still use a psychic push to wake her up. It’ll get us those answers you want faster.”

Kara looked out at the others. She didn’t want to hand this woman over to an authority — there hadn’t even been a crime committed so far as she knew — but she also wanted her friends and family safe. Her eyes landed on James last, and he gave a single nod.

“It’s your call, Kara.” There was so much trust in his gaze, she nearly felt swept away.

But Kara collected herself and nodded. “Go ahead, J’onn.”

His eyes glowed once more, and on the couch the woman stirred. Her eyelids fluttered, and in the next instant she sat right up with a gasp, her arms flying out.

Kara caught them both.

“Easy, easy! You’re not in any danger.”

The woman looked up at her with green eyes. “Wha— Who are you?” Her eyes darted around the whole room, taking everyone in. “Where am I?”

“I’m Kara, and this is my apartment. Who are you?”

The woman stared at her like she’d asked something very odd despite repeating her own question. “The Black Canary?”

“Yeah, that’s not a name,” Winn remarked.

The Black Canary. Something about that name rang a bell, but Kara couldn’t seem to pin it down.

She was distracted as Black Canary tried to tug her arms from Kara’s grip, and she eased up to let her go.

“Wait. Am I not—?” She felt around her eyes where the mask had been sitting. “Oh no.”

“It’s cool, we still don’t know who you are,” Winn told her.

“Then this isn’t Star City?”

“Nope,” said James.

“I don’t think I know a Star City,” Eliza added. Everyone else shook their heads in agreement as well, leaving Black Canary looking very confused and distressed.

“If we’re going to help you, we need you to cooperate with us,” Alex said, her voice trending more toward the stern Agent Danvers than her big sister. “So who are you really?”

The woman drew in a breath. “My name is Dinah Laurel Lance, and I have no idea how I got here.”

—-

To say that Laurel felt lost was an understatement. She couldn’t even guess as to the sequence of events that had led her here.

She’d been at the prison with the others, fighting to get the riot under control. Then Andy had betrayed them. After she’d convinced John to give things a chance with his brother, she couldn’t think what he must be feeling — assuming he and the others were still out there, somewhere.

With his powers back, Darhk had frozen them all. He’d caught Oliver’s arrow and turned to her with it, and then—

The floor had vanished out from under her. That was the only way to explain it. She’d gone from standing in front of him to suddenly falling, and through air. How had that happened?

Laurel couldn’t remember much about that past the blind panic. She’d been screaming, and something about that... she cleared her throat. “Can I have some water?”

“Oh, yeah. Um, Eliza?” Kara asked. A woman who looked to be one of the two oldest in the group nodded and walked across the open floor of the room to a kitchenette area, getting a glass and filling it. Laurel accepted it with a nod of thanks and drank. One hand absently rubbed at her neck, but she froze as she realized something was missing.

Her Canary Cry choker was gone.

“Um, when I was found, was there a- a necklace on me? It had sort of a silver-colored piece on the front.”

Kara shook her head. “The only thing we touched was the mask.”

Laurel frowned. Maybe it had fallen off while she was falling? She couldn’t believe she’d lost it after all the effort Cisco had put into making and developing it. It also didn’t make her feel any better about being on her own amongst strangers in a totally different place from home.

And there was still the question of how she’d gotten from falling through the sky to a woman’s apartment. “How was I found?”

Kara’s eyes widened. “Oh. Uh, well…”

“It was Supergirl,” one of the men blurted. “She- she works with Alex and Hank, so I guess she thought they could help. So she dropped you off and took off  _ just _ before you woke up.” He looked around at the others as if checking with them for confirmation.

“Supergirl?”

That got a lot of disbelieving looks.

“Well, yeah. Supergirl,” another man said. “National City’s resident hero? That’s where you are now, by the way.”

Laurel had never heard of a National City, much less the hero that protected it. “Is she new?”

“She’s been here a year,” Kara said. “Just about, anyway. No one’s counting. But, if you haven’t heard of her, you’ve probably heard of her cousin,” she added in a somewhat glum tone. “Superman?”

“Nope,” Laurel answered. “I don’t know any super-people. What do they do?” Were they metahumans like Barry and Cisco in Central or magic users like Mari?

“They save people,” the only unnamed woman in the room stated. Though maybe someone had called her Alex? “Supergirl also works with the D.E.O. The Department of Extranormal Operations, which handles extraterrestrials,” she added at Laurel’s raised eyebrow.

“Extraterrestrials.”

“Oh, come on, you have to have heard about aliens,” the first man said.

“The concept? Yes. Actual aliens? No.” As if it hadn’t been enough to learn that time travel was possible only a few short weeks ago. Laurel put her head in her hands.

“Um, well, Dinah—”

“It’s Laurel. I mean, I’m named after my mom, so everyone’s always used my middle name.”

“Okay, Laurel,” said Kara. “Maybe you just tell us everything you can remember up until your fall.”

“Well, it doesn’t make much sense. My team and I were trying to get a prison riot under control. Damien Darhk had orchestrated it, and he used a spy we had trusted to get his powers back. I thought he was going to kill me,” she admitted in a hushed tone. “But then, it was like the ground disappeared, and everything was really  _ blue _ for a minute, and then I guess... I was here. Maybe Darhk did it? He, um, he has magic.”

“He does?” None of them seemed to look totally thrown by that.

Laurel nodded. “Yeah. Sorry, could I get all of your names?”

“Oh! Right,” Kara laughed. She gestured to the woman on her left. “Well, this is Alex. We’re sisters. That’s our mom, Eliza. And our friends Hank, Winn, and, um, James,” she said, her smile turning up just that bit brighter as she glanced at the last man.

“And you all know this Supergirl?”

There were various nods or sounds of assent.

“I mean, we’re not  _ super _ close. Maybe Alex,” Winn said. “But she’s a hero, so, you know, we all love her.”

Kara was grinning quite widely at that, and if Laurel wasn’t mistaken, her chest had puffed out a little.

“You said you were part of a team fighting a prison riot,” Alex said. She looked at Laurel with her arms crossed over her chest. “But you wear a mask.”

“Yeah.” Laurel glanced down. “Some people, they call us heroes. There’s plenty of others who just see us as vigilantes. But we’re just people trying to help bring justice to a city that has trouble finding it on their own.”

“If you were in trouble back home, maybe we should lend you a phone so you can call your team,” James suggested.

“Yes, thank you.”

He passed her his, and she stood on just slightly unsteady feet to walk to the other end of the room as she dialed. She could see the others talking amongst themselves about her. Laurel didn’t know what to do about that. They’d helped rescue her, but they knew her identity.

An automated voice told her Thea’s number did not exist. Laurel frowned and tried again with the same result, then tried her father to get the same message again. The only other number she had memorized anymore was Ollie’s.

It rang and rang. Laurel held her breath, waiting for the familiar voice, something to ground herself, comfort her. Finally it was picked up. “Hello?”

It was a man’s voice, but not his. Laurel hesitated. “Hi. Um, could I speak to Oliver?”

“You must have the wrong number.”

She didn’t, but she also did not know this stranger. “Okay. Well, thank you.”

Laurel turned back to the group. “I couldn’t reach anyone.”

“They weren’t answering, or…” Winn began.

“Either their phones have been disconnected, or someone else has the number now.” Laurel shook her head. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m sure we can help you find them,” Eliza promised. Laurel tried to smile in gratitude, but she was still thrown by the lack of ability to contact her friends and family. What had happened? Where was she?

—-

He didn’t know what had happened. None of them did. He’d been forced to watch the whole thing, but Oliver couldn’t begin to explain it.

Darhk had had them all frozen once Andy had restored the last piece of the idol to him. Laurel had been the closest. Oliver’s last action had been firing an arrow, futilely, for Darhk had caught it. He’d turned back to Laurel.

“I want you to give your father a message from me. I want you to tell him—”

Yet just as he had moved to strike his blow, a... _ thing _ had opened up in the ground. A hole. A temporary one, but a hole.

Because Laurel had fallen through.

Her eyes had reflected a moment of shock and then terrible fear as she had dropped out of sight. Oliver had felt the yell of her name he could not voice rumble through his very bones.

The blue circle in the ground had disappeared, leaving the floor where she had once stood intact. Like she had never been there at all. Damien Darhk had paused, looking down at it.

“Well, that was odd.”

He didn’t know if it had been a break in Darhk’s concentration or just pure rage, but without any warning at all, Oliver had been able to  _ move. _

His fist had connected with Darhk’s face, and the man went tumbling to the ground. Oliver had hauled him back up and slammed him into the wall.

“What have you done? Where is she?”

“I’ve done nothing!” Darhk had claimed, one of his characteristic laughs on the end.

“Liar!”

Darhk’s eyes had glowed as he’d managed to get a hand raised up between them, yet Oliver’s arm had not stilled. His fist had connected. Again and again.

“How—” the man had coughed.

“Bring her back!”

“Oliver!”

John had caught his arm before he could land another blow, and Darhk had slowly slid to the ground, his eyes drooping shut and his breathing heavy.

“You’re gonna kill him if you keep that up,” John had muttered. “And whatever happened, it wasn’t him.”

But if it wasn’t… “She’s gone, John.” His voice had trembled. Oliver had looked around, his view and his standing unsteady. His eyes had landed on the idol sitting on the table, and with barely a second thought, he’d swept it off to smash on the floor.

Andy had gone when he’d looked around, and Malcolm had moved to check on Thea. “Get away from her, Malcolm,” he’d snarled, making great strides to cut him off from his sister. Oliver had scooped her up into his arms.

Malcolm has calmly raised both hands. “Oliver, I swear I didn’t—”

“I don’t care. You’ve chosen your side.” How many times had Malcolm used and betrayed his family and friends? How many times had Laurel warned him?

He’d left the prison with John once the authorities arrived, some in ARGUS attire to cart Darhk away as he knew their secret. Back at the base, they’d set Thea on a medical cot and Oliver had dropped into one of the chairs by the computers.

He was sitting there even now, his head in his hands. Laurel had disappeared in some blue light, not of Darhk’s origin. But how could it have been anything other than magic? And where was she now? He refused to consider the idea that she might simply be nowhere. No, Laurel still had to be alive.

The elevator opened and Quentin Lance hurried out. Oliver’s heart jumped into his throat.

“I got your call,” he said to John. “Is Darhk still in custody?”

“He is. ARGUS took over it,” John said. “But that’s not everything that happened.”

“What do you mean?”

A groan from Thea’s cot interrupted them, and Oliver went to her bedside. “Hey, it’s okay. Careful sitting up.”

“Did we get him?” His sister asked groggily. Under better circumstances, it might have pulled a smile from him. Right now, the best he could manage was a nod.

“We did, yeah.”

“Where’s Laurel?”

Of course Thea would notice because of  _ course _ Laurel would be there on the other side of the bed, holding his sister’s arm to keep her steady and checking her head for any bruise. If she were here.

He swallowed down a lump in his throat and looked from her to Lance. “We don’t know.”

Lance almost scoffed. “You don’t — what do you mean, you don’t know?”

“She disappeared, straight through the floor,” John replied, and without his helmet on Oliver could see how disturbed he looked by just the memory. “There was this blue light, and she was gone.”

“Gone where?” Lance stared at him, expecting something more when Oliver had nothing. “What- what floor were you on?”

Oliver shook his head. “She wasn’t in the prison. I’m sorry, Quentin.”

“But she’s not dead. I mean, she can’t be, right?” Thea asked, her eyes wide and afraid.

“We don’t know, Thea.” Oliver turned away. “We don’t know anything.”

The only thing they did know was that Laurel wasn’t here.

—-

Cisco sat up, an arm outstretched and a wordless cry on his lips. He stayed there for a moment, waiting for the harsh breaths he took to slow his heart rate down.

The same. For the seventh night in a row he had had the same dream. On some level, he felt it could be called a nightmare, but he just didn’t know why.

Nothing especially bad happened in it. It was just, there was a bird. A dead bird. And for some reason he always got a terrible sense of dread at the sight of it, building worse and worse with each successive night. This was the first time he’d woken up seemingly reaching for something, though.

He searched around on the bedside table for his phone, checking the time. It was an ungodly hour, of course. Why couldn’t his powers be the kind that let him sleep?

Cisco checked his messages and emails, then scrolled through the news app. Nothing of note, except a prison riot outside Starling City that had been fought by Team Arrow. At least he wasn’t the only one keeping late hours.

He set his phone aside again and rolled over with a sigh, closing his eyes and willing himself back to sleep.

For the first time in a week, the nightmare did not find him.


End file.
